During
the busy Thanksgiving travel period, the Darien Police Department along
with other law enforcement agencies
will partner with the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), State, and local law enforcement
and highway safety advocates across the country for the national Click It or Ticket campaign. Across
the country, these men and women will participate in a high-visibility
mobilization to ramp up patrolling to crack down on seat belt use.

·The
Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel times of the year, which
means more vehicles will be on the roads. Increased vehicle activity leads to
the potential for more crashes and more fatalities.

Failing
to buckle up puts you and other vehicle passengers in a potentially deadly
situation. It’s also against the law - plain and simple. There’s never an
excuse to not wear your seat belt.

·The Click
It or Ticket campaign combines increased awareness with increased
patrolling to reach as many Americans as possible with one key message: Wearing a seat belt is the single most
effective way to save your life and the lives of your loved ones while on the
road this Thanksgiving.

·During
the Thanksgiving mobilization, anyone found breaking this law will facefines
between $92.00 - $120.00.

vNot Buckling Up Can Be Deadly

During the
Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2015 (6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25, to
5:59 a.m. on Monday, November 30), there were 301 passenger vehicle
occupants killed in traffic crashes across the nation, a decrease from the
341 passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2014.

Compared to
Thanksgiving weekend in 2014, there was an 11-percentage-point decrease in
the number of passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in 2015, and an
8-percentage-point decrease in the number of those who were unbuckled when
they were killed that weekend.

Nighttime is deadlier
than daytime in terms of seat belt use. Over the 2015 Thanksgiving
weekend, 57 percent of passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes at
night were unbuckled, compared to 49 percent during the day.

During all of 2015, a
total of 22,441 passenger vehicle occupants were killed in crashes, and nearly
half (44%) of them were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the
crash. Among
passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in 2015, the age groups of 13-15 and
18-34 had the highest percentages (57% and 58%, respectively) of occupants
who were unbuckled at the time of their fatal crash.

vSeat Belts Save Lives

According to NHTSA, seat
belts saved approximately 13,941 lives nationwide age 5 and older in 2015.
If everyone had worn seat belts that year, an additional 2,804 lives could
have been saved.

Proper seat belt use
reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent
and the risk of moderate to serious injury by 50 percent.

Ejection from a vehicle is one of the most dangerous
events that can happen to a person in a crash. In fatal crashes in 2015, almost
8 out of 10 (80%) of the passenger vehicle occupants who were totally
ejected from vehicles were killed. Wearing your seat belt is the most
effective way to prevent ejections; only 1 percent of the occupants
reported to have been wearing their seat belts were totally ejected in a
crash, compared to 30 percent who were unbuckled.

This
Thanksgiving—and every day of the year—remember, Click It or Ticket. For
more information, please visit www.nhtsa.gov